Discusses the aftermath of the plane crash and other dangers

All right. And another plane crashed over here. A Flying Fortress, it came down, and 3 engine were duff, 3 engines had packed up, and so they came, we got them a cuppa tea and things like that then we had to provide transport for them to go back to a German, American Airbase. All Right. That's a very interesting place is this. And one day this is where I got the ablutions here - you know what ablutions means - wash and shave and things like see. And one day it was about dinner time well 12 o'clockish, I slept in this hut here in this section and I went down here to get a wash and a shave and just line myself up and this tank boy comes down the main road and he turns in here and actually he is nearer that it looks here and it was a flame thrower - and he activated the flame thrower and there was a Whoosh and a great big wall of flame came out so if he had come a little bit nearer I probably wouldn't have been here. An a Flying Officer Parker he was a little, a wee chap and he had his flying boots on and he comes out of there and he comes round to see what was wrong and why he's activated his flame thrower, and it appears that he had been back behind the servicing centre to get his flame thrower repaired and he had come down here and he said I'll come up here and was trying it out before he went up to the front line.

So you were nearly flamed by your own side?
Aye I could have been wi' own friendly fire. [unclear] The fire there if that had burst into flames instead of over there we could have been away because that was a wooden hut. All right. Now this place here you used to have to do a guard. All right. An I was out there one night so this would be - you've got the date in there - an about one o'clock two o'clock in the morning, away across in the distance I saw a V2 what I thought what I found out since was a V2. Have you heard of a V2. A flying bomb there, the one I showed you, well they used to go like that like a plane, but the V2 was the first rockets so they used to go like that way up into the atmosphere then used to curve over and come crashing down on London or maybe in Holland. I saw it going up the flames spiralling up and then there was a Shuuush, a gush of air and I just went in the side of the plane like that cos I didn't know, I realise afterwards cos we didn't know what all the things were happening see, but not same as in the newspapers because it was censored, that was a V2 an I actually saw it going.

Now you had another chappie here, hes not, you must realise that while we were off duty there was other people on duty. All right. Theres always somebody on duty twenty four hours a day, and it rained and it rained and it rained and you've heard of an earthing wire haven't you?
No.

You heard of an earthing wire?
Sorry say that again.

Well on your electricity.
Yeh
It has got to be earthed to a pipe so that if there is a leakage in the current it goes to earth.
Yeh.

Right. We use to have 3 diesels, ordinary lorries and a big platform at the back about that height and there is a great big diesel gen- engine on it and you used to wind it up with a wringing machine handle and it used to generate electricity for the radar. Right. No electricity no radar, all right. And so everything had to be earthed, a wire down you see, but it rained and rained and rained and everything was saturated, absolutely saturated and every thing was live, if you touched the back of that platform or anywhere on the lorry you would have been stuck, so to get onto the lorry you had to run and jump with both feet off the ground and then grab hold of it and you'ed be all right you see. But when you were off duty you see at night the crew that was on duty at night they used to go and get the cushions out the lorries and have a couple of hours sleep on, there was always somebody else on duty though eh and this boy Jack Topless, he went to get the cushions out of the cab and when he went to grab hold of the cab handle the door handle he was stuck cos when you get electricity though you your muscles contract like that you see and he let out a yell and a quarter of a mile away down on the domestic site the rumours of a big bird in the woods amongst the trees and this boy on the other side when he let out this yell the boy says theres the big bird he says I told you about, well one of the boys he got a blanket and wrapped it round some ant threw himself to break the contact and that was him - known as the man they couldn't kill.

How many people flew in the planes?
We had nothing to do with planes.
It was in radar. Now do you know what radar is?
Have you ever gone into a quarry a shouted Hallo. Anyway that is a sound echo coming back well radar is they had a transmitter and it sends out a pulse of electricity shwooh like that, when it hits something it sends a pulse back, so radar is an electrical echo machine, as you might say. [unclear] and that is what we did - sending out and you get the response back and it used to come back.